“The cut marks and other butchery marks we found on them show that some of these dogs were eaten. It implies that when the colonists came over, they didn’t have enough food, and they had to rely on the Indigenous dogs in the area,” said Thomas.
At least six of the dogs demonstrated evidence of Indigenous North American ancestry. That means Indigenous dogs lived in the area and were not immediately wiped out once the Europeans arrived.
In addition, the results of the study suggest that the colonists and Indigenous tribes may have actually traded dogs. They likely were not very concerned about the idea of possible interbreeding.
The researchers hope to investigate other sites and get their hands on more ancient DNA samples to figure out if these dogs were of purely Indigenous ancestry or the result of mating with European dogs.
The study was published in the journal American Antiquity.
